"Retrofy" Your Prints With Hand Tints

Posted on Jul 23, 2011 11:15am PDT

Recently, the world has seen a great revival in vintage. Vintage fashion, vintage furniture, vintage packaging, even the scarlet red lips of vintage make-up are making a comeback. We’re seeing the restoration of tired antique furniture into beautiful living room pieces and even brand new items are being distressed to create that ‘shabby chic’ effect. That’s why, at Little’s, we think it makes perfect sense to carry that trend through to vintage photography.

If you already have the unique vintage furniture and you’re looking to add further classic appeal to your walls, or if you have a favorite photograph that you’d like to breathe some life into, consider a technique we use at Little’s Photography called photograph hand-tinting.

The practice goes back to the 1900s, when photographers and artists wanted to add color to their black and white images but didn’t have the technology to do so until after their prints had developed, so they created hand tinted photos. These days, it seems this meticulous retouching technique using colored dyes still has great visual impact.

Hand-tinting photos can bring out the charm in any photograph and a touch (literally) of nostalgia can spectacularly enhance a piece. Our skilled artists can tint as much or as little of your chosen photograph as you choose. Perhaps you’d like an artistic addition of color to only one object in an otherwise colorless piece. Or, for a more dramatic effect, hand-tinting the whole image can leave people wondering whether they’re looking at a photograph or a painting; a surprising effect that you must see to believe!

If you have a special photograph that you’d like to ‘retrofy’ or enhance, our experts can help you achieve whatever effect you’re looking for. Whether it was taken in this century or the last, we never tint the originals in order to protect your precious memories.